Milwaukee lawyer one of many trying to oust heckling House member

Joe Wilson has a lot of foes and friends today. One of his foes: a Milwaukee lawyer who started a Facebook page devoted to booting the South Carolina congressman out of office.

A day after Wilson heckled the president during a major speech on health care, the House Republican has been the subject of widespread attention on the Web, on Twitter and on television.

Michael Maistelman, who is active in Wisconsin Democratic circles, created a Facebook page almost immediately after the incident. The page, which asks people to “defeat Congressman Joe ‘the Heckler’ Wilson,” now has nearly 300 members.

Maistelman isn’t alone. Democrats in his state are reporting that they have raised $400,000 in campaign contributions for his opponent since last night’s outburst. The lawmaker’s congressional Web site can’t be accessed because of the sheer number of people trying to log on to his page. And bloggers can’t get enough of the story.

Republicans are also trying to use the incident as a fundraising opportunity, asking supporters to show their solidarity with Wilson by donating to his re-election campaign.

On Wednesday night, Wilson yelled out “You lie!” as the president defended the Democrats reform proposals and insisted the plan would not cover illegal immigrants. The coverage provisions in the bills being proposed would not extend to illegal immigrants.